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Oliver Buchannon
Tom Sowerby

Transforming how businesses attract, convert, delight and grow customers. Founder of Ctrl+Shift.

Customer Onboarding

+1

Fix your sales-to-delivery handovers in 15 minutes

Jun 10, 2025

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3 min read

Fix your sales-to-delivery handovers in 15 minutes

Stop starting new client relationships with broken promises and confusion. This tactic creates a non-negotiable checklist to standardise the critical information passed from your sales to your delivery team.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Freedom Friday

+1

Are you the fox or the hedgehog?

Jun 6, 2025

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3 min read

Are you the fox or the hedgehog?

Your business is drowning in "good" opportunities, which is precisely why you're failing to achieve great results. It's time to find your Hedgehog.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Agency Management

+1

Get useful agency performance reports with this “Results First” structure

Jun 3, 2025

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3 min read

Get useful agency performance reports with this “Results First” structure

Are your agency reports a sea of confusing jargon like 'impressions' and 'clicks'? Do you get to the end of a meeting and still not know if you're winning? This tactic forces your agency to adopt "business first" reporting.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Freedom Friday

+1

The billion-dollar question: "What if you had to franchise?"

May 30, 2025

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3 min read

The billion-dollar question: "What if you had to franchise?"

You have no intention of franchising your business. But what if you built it as if you did? It's the ultimate secret to scale.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Hiring & Team Structure

+1

Sales, ops or admin? Identify your next critical hire with this 3-step time & energy audit

May 27, 2025

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3 min read

Sales, ops or admin? Identify your next critical hire with this 3-step time & energy audit

This 15-minute exercise quickly reveals where your most valuable resource - your own time and energy! - is actually going, pointing you towards the area of greatest pain and therefore your most strategic first hire.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Freedom Friday

+1

The most important question a leader can ask

May 23, 2025

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3 min read

The most important question a leader can ask

It's not "How do I do this?" It's "Who can do this for me?" This one shift changes everything.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Automation & Efficiency

+1

Prevent new tech failure with this 30-minute meeting

May 20, 2025

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4 min read

Prevent new tech failure with this 30-minute meeting

Stop buying expensive "shelf-ware". Use this pre-purchase huddle to surface resistance and gain team buy-in BEFORE you spend a dollar.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Freedom Friday

+1

The most dangerous word in your company culture

May 16, 2025

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4 min read

The most dangerous word in your company culture

You think you're building a "family." But what happens when you have to choose between being their mate or their leader?

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Automation & Efficiency

+1

Overcome team resistance to new tools & tech with this 3-step script

May 13, 2025

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3 min read

Overcome team resistance to new tools & tech with this 3-step script

This is a simple, empathetic conversation script to frame automation as a tool that helps your employees, not replaces them.

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Freedom Friday

+1

Why the optimists didn't survive the POW camp

May 9, 2025

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3 min read

Why the optimists didn't survive the POW camp

You believe you'll succeed. It’s the fire that got you started and the fuel that keeps you going. But what if that belief is the very thing stopping you from seeing the iceberg right ahead?

Tom Sowerby
Tom Sowerby

Ctrl + Shift

The newsletter for leaders looking to step up, not out. Twice a week, we share proven systems, mindset shifts, and scaling tactics to help you reclaim your time and 10x your impact.

© 2026 Ctrl + Shift.

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